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Keytruda could 'revolutionise' lung cancer treatment but NZ won't fund it, doc says

August 1, 2018

Pharmac approved the expensive cancer drug for melanoma patients two years ago, but lung cancer treatment isn’t approved.

Lung cancer kills over four times more Kiwis each year than accidents on the road, and it’s more deadly than breast cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer combined.

But little if any of the $2.2 billion collected in tobacco tax each year is directed at preventing the disease or treating it with drugs like Keytruda, which has been helping melanoma patients in New Zealand for two years now, oncologist Chris Atkinson told TVNZ 1's Breakfast today.

“It really is quite a disgrace that only two or three per cent of the tobacco tax goes back into prevention and knowledge around tobacco, and helping people stay off tobacco,” Dr Atkinson said, arguing that the cancer should be made a national priority but isn’t due to the stigma around smokers.

“The interesting thing is at the time of diagnosis of lung cancer, only 30 per cent of Kiwis are still smoking. And 20 per cent – at least – of patients have never smoked.”

Pharmac approved Keytruda for melanoma patients in 2016, after a prolonged campaign for Government funding fought by patients and then-opposition Labour MPs. The treatment was costing some patients who had decided to privately fund it hundreds of thousands of dollars for a two-year course.

Dr Atkinson said there is a “huge body of evidence” the drug and others could “revolutionise” lung cancer treatment in New Zealand as well.

“These drugs are not getting through Pharmac and are not getting Government support despite years being on the table,” he said.

“That is quite wrong…They’re usually more effective than chemotherapy and less toxic.”

While cost has been a barrier to funding such drugs in the past, re-prioritising how the tobacco tax is spent should make it feasible, he said.

“As New Zealanders, we need to change our thinking around costs,” he said. “If you’ve got a primary health issue – lung cancer – and it’s not being addressed, and it’s got the greatest inequality between Māori and Pasifika outcomes and non-Māori and – Pasifika outcomes, that’s wrong. The average Kiwi would not think that’s correct.”

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